The Most Underappreciated Mystery Gems On Netflix You Should Watch

Are you a Netflix crime, mystery, and/or thriller aficionado? If you can never seem to get enough murder, mayhem, bludgeoning, and bloodshed (all of these being confined to the screen, we hope), you've probably already binged on every single episode of true crime mega-hit Tiger King, you're all caught up on the Spanish counterfeiting drama Money Heist, you're digging the Holmes/Watson bromance on Sherlock and hoping there will be a season 5 some day, and you're filling in the time 'til Better Call Saul's sixth and final season by re-watching all five seasons of Breaking Bad.

There may, however, be a few of this streaming service's less high-profile mystery gems that are still flying below your radar. As Rod Serling, host of that all-time classic mystery series The Twilight Zone (which is itself available to watch on Netflix) used to say, the following TV viewing suggestions are "submitted for your approval."

Madam Secretary, which made PopSugar's list of "16 Underrated TV Shows," is a stylish political thriller about a former CIA analyst who's enjoying a relatively quiet life as a professor. Quiet, that is, until she is asked to take over as Secretary of State when the previous office holder is killed in a plane crash. Not only does she need to figure out her new role as a high-level government official on the fly, but she also feels a pressing urge to figure out just what, exactly, caused her predecessor's plane to go down. It would seem there's some shady business afoot in the corridors of power... as if that would ever happen, right?

Another Screen Rant selection for underrated Netflix mystery series, and one from an even more exotic location, is The Valhalla Murders. As its name implies, this show is yet another example of the oh-so-popular Scandinavian Noir shows that just blew up after The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo came out. Well, technically Nordic Noir, in this case, since the show's Icelandic setting is not always considered to be part of Scandinavia proper (via Scandinavia Standard). All geographic quibbling aside, though, this show has plenty of brooding psychological intensity and a troubled female detective tracking a serial killer across a bleak, snowy landscape, so what more could you possibly want out of the genre?

If you're more into period crime dramas and historical mysteries, then Penny Dreadful may just be your cup of blood. Another PopSugar pick for Netflix shows not getting enough love, this quirky three-season show mashes up history, mystery, and classic horror — oh, and a little AP English Lit, for good measure. Penny Dreadful was canceled by Showtime in 2016, but just had a reboot as Penny Dreadful: City of Angels where the action shifts to 1930s Los Angeles. Before binging on the new series, though, you'll definitely want to catch up with the original adventures of Dr. Frankenstein, Van Helsing, Mina Harker, Dorian Grey, et al in this super-creepy thriller set in the darkest corners of Victorian London.

The Frankenstein Chronicles, which is another horror-inspired historical mystery series, offers something almost unprecedented in the history of TV and movies — you get to see Sean Bean not die! Well, he is the hero of this drama, after all, playing a police officer who is hot on the trail of the grave robbers who've supplied the bits and pieces stitched together to make a monster. Two years ago IGN named The Frankenstein Chronicles as one of its five picks for Netflix shows you should be watching but probably missed, and two years later, it's still streaming on Netflix, and you're still not watching it. Yet. But you should be — Mystery Tribune names it as one of Netflix's current best crime drama and thriller shows. Just don't forget to clap your hands to show you believe in fairies Sean Bean, that way his life will be spared!

This list would not be complete without one true crime show. Even though Evil Genius can't boast a single wild animal (or even a mullet), it nonetheless made A Good Movie to Watch's list of Netflix's most underrated series of any genre. The full name of this show (you can tell the director means business if he gives it a subtitle) is Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist, and it deals with the notorious pizza bomber case that shocked, horrified, and frankly kind of grossed out the internet back in 2003 (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). The whole show wraps up in just four episodes, but A Good Movie to Watch characterizes each one as "equally terrifying and intriguing."